After meeting for the very first time today, the group created under Georgia’s Transportation Investment Act to come up with a list of projects for the Atlanta region – the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable – announced its elected 5-member Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee plays an important role in the selection of Atlanta transportation projects that could potentially be funded with a one-cent sales tax.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is scheduled to submit a “wish list” to the Exec. Committee for review some time during the Spring of next year. The 5 executive committee members will then be tasked with selecting the projects which will be brought before the full 21-member Roundtable for a vote in August 2011. The final Roundtable vote is scheduled to occur “no later than October 15, 2011.”

More info on House Bill 277 and the process of selecting a list of projects that will be put before voters in 2012 can be found HERE.

Thanks to those who have already donated to the Decatur Education Foundation “Tools To Success” campaign to help purchase laptop computers for Decatur High students with plans of post-secondary education, who come from low-income households! However, we still have a ways to go to achieve our goal of purchasing multiple laptops.

If you’d like to make a donation to the campaign, you can just jump over to the Decatur Education Foundation’s donation page and designate your gift to the “General Fund”. Just make sure to write “laptops” in the “Additional Comments” section before you hit “Submit” so we can keep track of how much money has been raised for the cause.

This morning the AJC reports that 12,600 gallons of raw sewage spilled on Hancock Drive near Emory University yesterday and spilled into Peachtree Creek.

Lots of people went before the DeKalb County Commission this past week and complained about higher water rates that are needed to cover a $700 million overhaul of the county’s sewer system. I’m sorta feeling like I should have gone down there and done some unhinged yelling about these upgrades not being made sooner. That would’ve really thrown those penny-pinchers for a loop!

Ben Lambeth alerts us to a new music video by Decatur High School junior Eron Smith (aka One1even) that was just released on YouTube, entitled “Soundtrack To My Heartbeat”.

Take a listen and I think you’ll be thoroughly impressed and entertained by both Smith and the video itself, which was directed by Lambeth. The song is smart and catchy – I must admit I’ve listened to it probably eight times now – and the video is quirky and well produced.

Oh, and if you feel the need to pick up a copy of Smith’s latest album, you can buy it right now on iTunes, CDBaby and Amazon.

What Now, Atlanta? reports that Octane Coffee in Emory Village is closing its doors on December 17th and will be replaced in the new year by “Steady Hand Coffee”, the brain child of two current Octane baristas.

According to WNA, the new concept shop will include a “mobile unit”, which will start serving coffee at various outdoor locations in the Emory Village area beginning this Saturday, December 18th.

Caribou, Inman Perk, Method, and now Octane Coffee have come and gone from that single location in the last 5 years or so. It seems that the multiple Starbucks within a couple hundred feet of that location, ongoing construction to rebuild the street-scape, along with Emory Village’s inherent problems with attracting sustainable foot-traffic to the area, is a difficult hurdle for any caffeine emporium in that space.